Immune responses of the sea cucumberApostichopus japonicusto stress in two different transport systems

Abstract

We report the effect of transport stress on the immune responses of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. The total coelomocytes counts, phagocytosis activity, reactive oxygen species production, acid phosphatase activity, phenoloxidase activity and catecholamine levels were measured in A. japonicus following both damp and water transportation methods. With both transport methods, stress resulted in significant elevation of catecholamine levels. Total coelomocytes counts increased following transportation, whereas phagocytic activity and reactive oxygen species production decreased. Damp transport significantly depressed acid phosphatase and phenoloxidase activity in A. japonicus. However, there were no significant differences in acid phosphatase and phenoloxidase activity after water transportation. These results show that transport stress induces modifications in the immune system of A. japonicus and that damp transport elicited more severe stress than water transport. This study increased understanding of the mechanism of transport stress inducing neuroendocrine responses and immune modification in A. japonicus. The information obtained should be helpful to optimize transport process in sea cucumber culture.

Time‐series response of immune enzymes and catecholamines in juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus during long‐term live transport

“…Live transport of small‐size juvenile sea cucumbers is crucial for outdoor ecological breeding with high survival and strong vitality (Wang et al, ; Xie & Zhao, ). Transport stimulation elicits hypoxic or congesting stress on high‐density stored sea cucumbers, to certain extent (Tan et al, ). The hypoxia and congestion stressors derived from transport cause function of haemocyte to be compromised and increase susceptibility to various diseases (Lacoste et al, ; Malham, Lacoste, Gélébart, Cueff, & Poulet, ).…”

“…The hypoxia and congestion stressors derived from transport cause function of haemocyte to be compromised and increase susceptibility to various diseases (Lacoste et al, ; Malham, Lacoste, Gélébart, Cueff, & Poulet, ). Exposure to stress stimulation has been found to induce various immune responses, which involves changes in activities of immune enzymes and amounts of stress hormones (Guo et al, ; Tan et al, ). The previous studies were mainly focused on the responses of sea cucumbers after transport (Tan et al, ).…”

“…Thus, it is necessary to transport the indoor seedlings to the outdoor net cages. In general, the transport takes several hours, even more than 10 hr (Tan et al, ). The transport process is crucial to ensure the quality of seedlings especially after release to the outdoor culture site, to a large extent.…”

“…The transport methods applied to sea cucumbers include damp transport and water transport (Guo, Gong, Shao, & Jia, ; Tan et al, ; Zamora & Jeffs, ). Studies on effects of transport methods on sea cucumbers were mainly conducted based on a simulated transport condition (Gianasi, Hamel, & Mercier, ; Tan et al, ; Tonn et al, ; Zamora & Jeffs, ) or the transport duration was often limited to less than 5 hr (Guo et al, ). Beyond that, these studies mainly focused on the recovery of sea cucumbers transported for certain duration and the relative large‐size juveniles with immersed weight of more than 1 g were often used to perform transport tests.…”

“…Currently, little information exists on the long‐term on‐site transport process, which could transfer small‐size juveniles of sea cucumber to the outdoor sites for ecological breeding. During transport, the juveniles are exposed to stress conditions, mainly including hypoxia and crowding (Tan et al, ). It has been demonstrated that stress induces an increment of neurohormones (Lacoste, Malham, Cueff, & Poulet, ) and certain inhibition of non‐specific immune system (Kuchel, Raftos, & Nair, ; Matozzo et al, ; Wang et al, ), thus the organisms are likely to suffer from disease, mortality and restrained growth (Cheng, Liu, Hsu, & Chen, ; Jiang, Pan, & Fang, ).…”